The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
Reply to Thread Bookmark Thread
Posts 1 to 16 of 16
  1. #1

    User Info Menu

    Feel free to ask questions or discuss.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

    User Info Menu

    Nice guide, thanks. Impulse responses for both reverb and speaker cabs are great innovations for home recording. Biggest impediment I have to making good-sounding recordings these days is my own playing technique. Really specific control over the dynamic range of the instrument at the hand / pick / fingers / instrument level is a whole other part of recording that I never really thought much about until I started recording solo jazz guitar. I would like to improve on the playing aspect of my recording technique, because, as you point out, with regards to needing too much EQ in post, some things are better fixed at the source. Any tips you might have in that regard—controlling dynamic range specifically in the context of playing while recording—would be appreciated. I'm not talking about things like compression, etc., but rather, how to determine what how "quiet and loud" quiet and loud should be while playing.

  4. #3

    User Info Menu

    Picking technique is so important for control of dynamics. Guitar is a percussion instrument after all, and how we strike the string (or touch as id prefer to say) has a huge effect on the sound we get, not just the quality of our tone but the all important aspects of our dynamics. Here’s a couple of videos that demo my right hand technique and the rest stroke in particular, which is a very powerful tool to help control dynamics. It takes lots of practice so keep at it. I’ve been playing a long time! Note the 2 minute picking demo does not use the recording techniques in my article, but the video of Shenandoah very much follows the recording recipe exactly.





  5. #4

    User Info Menu

    I love your recording of Shenandoah, great playing and sound.

    What about strings? Do you change them often? What strings do you use? I've been using flat wound and am thinking of making a change.

    I'm thinking I could experiment with mic placement by making a list of positions, work my way thru them while recording a track, and decide based on playback.

    Phone or earbuds? Bummer that someone would listen to your recordings that way. That is the world we live in.

    2nd mic ambient sounds, I haven't tried that. It's an interesting idea for me as I've been trying to get rid of all ambient sounds like string squeaks and especially the annoying sound of my breathing.

    Altiverb - that's a hefty price tag, $520. For the budget-minded (i.e. cheap bastards like me), I think the Lexicon 480L IRs are real good and can be downloaded for free: Download GN’s Personal Lexicon 480L IR’s | Housecall FM.

    You didn't say which DAW you are using. I've found that Reaper seems to have everything I need, I'm going to look for and experiment with the stereo imaging, I bet Reaper has one. In Reaper, when you render your file you can set the LUFS and you can add a limiter as part of the Render, very useful and a time saver.

    I noticed that your Shenandoah recording is at -4.6db relative to the maximum level you can submit before Youtube applies their normalization. Your volume level works for me as I can adjust the volume to where I want on my end and I'm listening with decent equipment. Is that level something you are paying attention to?

    For me, I don't want Youtube to touch the file more than they have to so I keep my submissions less than -15 LUFS (with the minus sign -16 LUFS is less than -15 LUFS for example) I start with -16 LUFS and if the limiter only touched the file a few times or not at all then I'm done, if the limiter is hitting the file a bunch of times I'll lower the volume some more. It's nice to have a standard volume you shoot for that is close to the YouTube maximum LUFS in case your videos are included in a playlist.

    Thanks for writing that article, well written and great information.
    Last edited by fep; 01-21-2022 at 12:32 PM.

  6. #5

    User Info Menu

    Hi Frank, I’m pretty cheap too; my DAW is a 15+ year old version of Digital Performer running on a similarly aged Mac PowerBook. But Altaverb is worth every Penny!

    I do manage my volume and video render quality to avoid YouTube’s automatically processing things, so keeping things a few db down from max is intentional. Pop music needs to compete in the loudness wars. I don’t wish to.

  7. #6

    User Info Menu

    Very helpful, thanks, I will study these videos more in-depth this weekend.

  8. #7

    User Info Menu

    This is great stuff - thanks, Mark!

    For anyone interested in a more in-depth discussion of DIY live recording, here's a link to an article I wrote for Audiophile Style in 2021 (I write a column for AS called The Value Proposition in Audio). It goes through mic positions for different instruments and discusses simple mixing and mastering techniques like "mid-side" and controlling the width of a stereo image. It includes a DIY guide to mixing and mastering, using a simple 3 part clip from a track I made for the 2019 Philly Blues Society compilation CD (download links in the article). I'm playing all 3 parts - National tricone, 7 string flat top, and harmonica.

  9. #8

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
    This is great stuff - thanks, Mark!

    For anyone interested in a more in-depth discussion of DIY live recording, here's a link to an article I wrote for Audiophile Style in 2021 (I write a column for AS called The Value Proposition in Audio). It goes through mic positions for different instruments and discusses simple mixing and mastering techniques like "mid-side" and controlling the width of a stereo image. It includes a DIY guide to mixing and mastering, using a simple 3 part clip from a track I made for the 2019 Philly Blues Society compilation CD (download links in the article). I'm playing all 3 parts - National tricone, 7 string flat top, and harmonica.
    thanks for sharing this. Awesome detailed info!!

  10. #9

    User Info Menu

    I just started a new group in Facebook specifically for this subject. Please join!

    Log into Facebook

  11. #10

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut
    Picking technique is so important for control of dynamics. Guitar is a percussion instrument after all, and how we strike the string (or touch as id prefer to say) has a huge effect on the sound we get, not just the quality of our tone but the all important aspects of our dynamics. Here’s a couple of videos that demo my right hand technique and the rest stroke in particular, which is a very powerful tool to help control dynamics. It takes lots of practice so keep at it. I’ve been playing a long time! Note the 2 minute picking demo does not use the recording techniques in my article, but the video of Shenandoah very much follows the recording recipe exactly.
    I've been spending some time with the picking angle you've recommended here. Feels a bit unfamiliar in my hands so far and not without some discomfort—makes me aware of my elbow for some reason—but if I can get this together I think it will help tame some shrillness on the top strings that's been haunting me since, well, forever. So thanks for that. Much appreciated.

    In regards to dynamic range while recording, I turned my amp up quite a bit louder than I normally play while recording tonight and this seemed to help with the overall dynamic of my recording quite a bit—maybe it's forcing me to pick more quietly or something along those lines. When playing without recording, I like the guitar amp to be just loud enough that I can still hear a good mix of the acoustic instrument combined with the amp. But recording levels seem to even out a bit with amp louder than this.

  12. #11

    User Info Menu

    Interesting, I actually prefer to record with the amp turned down very low

  13. #12

    User Info Menu

    I came here hoping to find some specific tips about mic position but must have overlooked them.

    Do the same mike position guidelines apply for recording an acoustic/unplugged (fingerpicked) f-hole archtop as for recording a ditto flattop?

    I'm using a large-diaphragm condensor (T.Bone SC800 IIRC) which I usually have at some 40cm from the fretboard oriented towards the 12th fret, from slightly above (so mike tilted downwards) so as to match the angle I hold my instrument at. The mike goes through an ART Tube MP into a SoundBlaster3! interface and then into Audacity at 48kHz, 24 bits.

    For flattops you don't want to aim at the soundhole in order not to make the boomyness even bigger, but an archtop's f-holes are further down the body and are supposed to project more (*). That suggests one might need to move the mike a bit further out, and one could aim it more at the body? (**)?

    *) interestingly, I hear much more of the sound playing my archtop (or resonator) than playing my Seagull jumbo.
    **) flattop miking guidelines always mention the 12th fret, regardless of whether you're dealing with a 14, 13 or 12 frets-to-the-body model...

  14. #13

    User Info Menu

    To RJVB, miking acoustic instruments is extremely dependent on good mic position. Rather then guess how to solve for the great variety of differences between instruments, microphones and room (impactful in that order) I would suggest following the same advice for miking an amp, or anything for that matter. Have helpers to move the mike around while someone else plays and you listen carefully till you hear “that it factors”. By the way, not everyone agrees with me but I really prefer to use a stereo mike in acoustic instruments. Or a matched pair in stereo array (same thing-sort of).

  15. #14

    User Info Menu

    I agree about using paired microphones; we're binaural listeners after all (normally)...

  16. #15

    User Info Menu

    When you record acoustic guitar using a pair of microphones, what would be the right distance between the mics and the guitar? I have never tried to record a guitar like this. I am thinking about possible negative influence of small movements of the guitar, while playing, on the stereo recording when the mics are too close.

  17. #16

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by msankowski
    When you record acoustic guitar using a pair of microphones, what would be the right distance between the mics and the guitar? I have never tried to record a guitar like this. I am thinking about possible negative influence of small movements of the guitar, while playing, on the stereo recording when the mics are too close.
    if the guitar moves a lot and the microphones are super close then it could create weird shifting of the stereo image. On the other hand a little of this occurring naturally could give a subtle chorus effect which might sound fantastic. The name of the game, as always, is experiment. Recording is very much a process of trial and error. This can’t be overstated!